SEE IT

Strangers & Liars, Scarlet Ledbetter will play Friday at 10 p.m. at the Crooked I, 1013 State St. For more on Strangers & Liars, visit http://strangersandliars.com.

Correction

Previous versions of this story included an incorrect day for the CD release party in the headline.

When they're not writing or recording and want to relax, the four members of Strangers & Liars play euchre.

"When we have the opportunity, we reward ourselves for our good work by playing a couple good hands," said drummer Tom Hitt.

"The band doesn't have enough negativity in it, so we have to get it from the outside and find ways to disagree with each other," added singer-guitarist Tommy Link, with a laugh.

"'Follow suit!'" Hitt barked.

That easygoing repartee symbolizes the bond within Stranger & Liars, an original Erie band rooted in classic rock and singer-songwriter idioms. Their songs feel intimate as a whisper, yet rock with hard-strummed guitar, chiming chords, catchy hooks and captivating melodies.

Link, a regular at open-mike events, started the band organically. Justin Anderson joined him occasionally on electric guitar at his acoustic gigs. When they decided to add a rhythm section, they called Russ Straub, who had played with Anderson in Kristen and the Cosmonauts. Link knew Hitt from the singer-songwriter circuit.

"It was very much finding the pieces that fit, as opposed to the mentality of 'Let's start a band from the beginning,'" Link said.

Strangers & Liars plays a CD release show on Friday at Crooked I for "Five Seat Concert Hall," which is loaded with appealing tunes. Echoes of early Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers abound, not only sound-wise but lyrically, at times. ("Letters" includes a sly reference to refugees).

"(Petty) is probably one of the biggest common grounds between the four of us," Link said.

"I don't think it's been a conscious thing, but we've tried to be a little timeless with the style we do," Anderson added. "It's straightforward rock and roll, but there's really no genre anchored to it. It's just basically three-chord rock and roll."

Link's plaintive, openhearted lyrics contain a folksy wisdom in songs like "Along for the Ride."

"A lot of the songwriters I admired were the storytellers and the wordsmiths, like Tom Petty, Billy Joel, Bob Dylan, Paul Simon and George Harrison," he said. "It's that sort of balance of keeping things simple and expressing situations that everyone can relate to, whether they're spelled out specifically and telling a direct story or giving an outline where you can fill in the blanks."

Link wrote nine of the album's 10 songs; Anderson composed "She Ain't Talking," a tasty, midtempo rocker with nimble fretwork. Future CDs will feature more songs by Anderson, as well as Hitt. Democracy works!

"Whenever we're playing together, we're always having fun, so that makes it easy," Hitt said. "And if something isn't working, we're real democratic about it. ... I've never known a group of guys who were more open to ideas and changes."

Strangers & Liars is part of a fresh influx of bands such as Falling Hollywood, Chasing Moira and Scarlet Ledbetter that's reinvigorating Erie's original scene.

"I really like the original thing because it grants a lot more freedom and there's a lot more of a sense of creative accomplishment," Anderson said. "I did like playing in a cover band, but I've never had more fun playing in a band than I have this one."

"I always wanted to play in an all original band, and it's hard to get folks to want to do that," Hitt added. "It's an uphill climb to get gigs, an uphill climb to get attention and uphill climb to get an audience.

"That doesn't bother the four of us. And the music is really good. It's the best music I've ever made."

Copies of Stranger & Liars' "Five Seat Concert Hall" will be available at Friday's show. It's also available on iTunes and at www.CDbaby.com.